I have a confession to make: I may have encouraged my children to learn to sing Kelly Clarkson’s My Life Would Suck Without You as a karaoke number. Which is obviously inappropriate due to the language in the title line. But, in my defense, it is really funny when they sing at the top of their lungs “MY LIFE MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WOULD SUCK WITHOOOOOOUUUUUUT YOOOOUUUUU!!”

For Christmas we received 2 karaoke games for our Nintendo Wii: Karaoke Revoution, Glee Edition and Disney Sing It, Family Hits. And let me tell you, karaoke with the kids is HYSTERICAL. First of all, my 5 year old son is still learning to read and has trouble keeping up with the lyrics, so most of the songs go “and I mmmm..mah…oohee…oooh” until the chorus comes around. And my 6 year old daughter CAN keep up with the lyrics, but sings loud and off-key to a rhythm of her own. Both are very amusing.

Of the two games, the Glee one is actually better because the songs are better; more classic rock and pop ballads. Neither my wife nor I are “gleeks” but the game is still a lot of fun. The major downside is that the songs are the versions performed on the show, so until you learn the differences from the originals, it can be a little confusing. The best/worst song is Lean on Me, in which the lyrics for the last minute of the song is the lead soul-singing character riffing like Beyonce. It sucks because unless you ARE a soul singer, there is no way to get a good score. But it is awesome to TRY, loudly, to channel your inner diva, so we always end up rolling in the floor with laughter by the end. As an added pro, Glee features a dual-singer mode on all the songs as well as a duet mode for many of them. Overall, the game is a lot of fun.

Disney Sing It, Family Edition SEEMS like it should be more fun for the kids. Unfortunately, the song selection is not so good. Other than most of the songs from The Lion King, Aladdin’s A Whole New World, and Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid, we didn’t even know a lot of the songs. Almost the entire Randy Newman collection from the Pixar films is on there, but as those are soundtrack songs and not character songs, they’re just not as much fun. The scoring system is also a lot more difficult on Sing It which is another con.

We’ve really enjoyed the karaoke games and we’ve spent quite a few evenings of quality time playing them together as a family. Plus the creative aspect is a bonus, too. As far as game quality goes, I’d rate Glee Karaoke Revolution 4 out of 5 stars, and Disney Sing It 2 out of 5. But for family fun overall, I’d rate the Wii karaoke experience as 5 out of 5.

And judge if you must, but nothing beats my kids rockin’ “MY LIFE MY LIFE WOULD SUCK WOULD SUCK WITHOOOUUUT YOOUUU!”